Love hurts
by dayana82
Summary: I wondered how, with all the pain she was in, Garcia managed to change her shirt. This is my idea about it. It’s also my explanation for why, after all that happened between Penelope and Derek, she opted for Kevin. No, not fluff but still MG please R
1. Love hurts

Title: Secrets

**Title: **Love hurts

**Fandom:** Criminal Minds

**Pairing:** Morgan/Garcia

**Prompt for 10 hurt/comfort:** #1 Injured

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** Neither the show nor the characters belong to me, they belong to CBS. Nonetheless, I love to borrow them from time to time.

**Summary:** Little missing scene from 'Penelope'. I wondered how – with all the pain she was in – Garcia managed to change her shirt. This is my idea about it. It's also my explanation for why – after everything that happened between Penelope and Derek – opted for Kevin.

**warnings:** well, spoilers for 'Penelope'

He heard a low gasp of pain from the bedroom and immediately hurried into the room. "What's wrong, baby girl?"

"Nothing." she almost yelled at him. "Get out!"

"But…"

"Out!" she shouted.

He was startled for a moment. Then he carefully asked. "Honey, did I do something wrong? If I did, I'm sorry. I never meant to do anything to… make you upset or…"

"No" she interrupted him and sighed, "it's just… I… I need to change clothes. So… would you please just leave me alone."

"I could help you." he volunteered.

"No way!" Penelope gasped. "Derek, I can't… I don't want to… I'm not going to undress in front of you."

"I won't look." he quickly promised.

"Yeah, I'm sure about that." she mumbled.

Derek stepped forward and knelt down in front of her. "I could just as well stare at you if that would make you feel better."

"That's not funny." she grumbled.

Suddenly all serious Derek took her hands in his and softly explained: "I don't want you to be in pain and I absolutely don't want you to rip your stitches in a careless movement. That's why I'm here. I just want to help and make sure you're alright."

"I know." she whispered.

Derek gently squeezed her hands. "Let me help you, Penelope!"

She drew in a shaky breath and closed her eyes. This was going to be embarrassing. But she knew changing the shirt on her own would be too much pain. It was almost impossible to raise her arms over her head. So she nodded.

Derek stood up, walked around the bed and carefully sat down behind her. "The flashy purple one?" he asked with a soft smirk that was even audible in his voice.

Fortunately, he was sitting behind her so that he couldn't see the soft shade of pink that appeared on her cheeks. "Yeah, that's… I usually wear that at night."

"Ready?" he smiled and gently grabbed the bottom of her shirt.

"No." she whispered and took in another shaky breath.

Carefully Derek pulled at the shirt, higher up revealing the bandage around her middle. When he noticed Penelope shiver he stopped and asked concerned: "Did I hurt you?"

"No." she almost panted. "Just… This is so embarrassing."

"Just pretend I'm one of the nurses." he smiled and continued to pull up the shirt.

She couldn't stop the gasp of pain when she had to raise both arms above her head so that Derek could remove the shirt. But it would certainly have been much worse if she had done that on her own.

"Bra?" he asked huskily. This was definitely inappropriate now but he knew that she couldn't reach behind her back – or at least shouldn't at the moment.

"No!" Penelope gasped. Then she swallowed and nodded. "Yes." God, this was getting more and more embarrassing.

Carefully Derek opened the clasp and tried not to watch her while she carefully removed the piece of closing. Yet his eyes were studying every inch of her bare back. Her skin looked so soft and tempting. He could smell her and he was mere inches apart from touching her, tasting her. He could just lean forward and nibble at the soft skin.

Of course, he shouldn't – and wouldn't at the moment. Not when she was in so much pain. But the mere thought of that made his whole body jerk.

Derek shook those thoughts off – at least as good as he could. He shouldn't think about her like that, especially not now! So as soon as she was done removing her bra, he quickly grabbed the purple shirt and carefully pulled it over her arms, then her head and slowly down her body – yet he couldn't help but take every opportunity to accidentally touch her.

"Thanks." Penelope mumbled.

"You're welcome." Derek smiled and now took a deep breath himself. He had to admit that the situation was awkward.

"Could you… um… leave me alone now?" her voice was barely above a whisper.

He frowned for a moment and then his eyes fell upon the pajama trousers on her bed. Grabbing them he jumped up and walked around the bed so that they were facing each other. "Let me help you!"

"No!" she shouted at him and tried to grab the trousers from him. But that simple movement made her gasp, wince and grimace in pain.

"Are you alright?" Derek quickly asked and grabbed her shoulders in a desperate attempt to do anything to make it better.

"Yeah, I'm fine." she mumbled holding her hurting stomach. "Please, Derek, go out. Helping me change my shirt is one thing but…"

"Trust me!" he said. "I don't want you to hurt yourself."

"Please, I…"

But he had already grabbed her waistband.

Blushing deeply Penelope stood up – with Derek's help – and let him pull her trousers down to her knees. This was so incredibly embarrassing that for a brief moment Penelope wished she hadn't survived the shooting.

But Derek was just as sweet and cute and caring as usual. He didn't look at her, not even once. He kept his eyes on his hands and the trousers he was carefully pulling up her bare legs.

In a way it was cute – but on the other hand Penelope felt a little disappointed that he didn't even try to look at her. He obviously didn't find her in any way attractive. Which meant the 'I love you' a few minutes ago had just been a friendly one.

Derek didn't dare look at her because he didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable – and he wasn't entirely sure he would be able to keep himself from 'taking advantage' of her if he did. It had almost been too much to look at her back. Looking at her legs was out of the question. So he kept his eyes focused on what his hands were doing. But he never missed a chance to touch her soft skin.

When he was done, Derek finally looked up and smiled at her. He helped her lay down, tucked her in, gave her a quick peck on the cheek, wished her goodnight and went back into the living room to sleep on her couch.

Penelope turned to her side and closed her eyes. She couldn't stop the tears from damping her pillow – but at least she could keep herself from sobbing so that Derek didn't hear how she cried herself to sleep. His words had given her hope that there could be more, yet his actions had shown her that there never would. She'd never thought it possible since the wounds from the shooting hurt so much that she almost couldn't bare it. But a broken heart hurt more.

She could nonetheless pretend it was just due to the fraternization rules and cherish the fact that they at least had such a close friendship that there was some kind of love between them. Although it would never be real love. She would keep enjoying their flirtatious banter and she would savor the fact that he took such a good care of her.

But despite all that it was still hard to realize that there could never be more than friendship between them. Of course, she should have known better even after he'd said these three little words she'd been craving to hear from him since the day they met. She wasn't his type and it was pathetic to keep up the hope that someday he would change his mind out of the blue.

But she couldn't stop loving him – even though it hurt, especially when she once again had to realize that he didn't love her the same way. Every little gesture from him gave her hope that there could be more and every time this hope was deceived. It was pathetic, that much was for sure. She should stop mooning over him as soon as her broken heart was healed.


	2. Just a fight between friends

Title: Secrets

**Title: **Just a fight between friends

**Fandom:** Criminal Minds

**Pairing:** Morgan/Garcia

**Prompt for 10 hurt/comfort:** #10 Fight

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** Neither the show nor the characters belong to me, they belong to CBS. Nonetheless, I love to borrow them from time to time.

**Summary:** Set after 'Damaged'. Part 2 of the 'Love hurts' series. After Derek found out about Penelope and Kevin his jealousy causes a bad fight.

**warnings:** well, spoilers for season 3

**AN:** _After all the nice reviews I received for 'Love hurts' I decided to continue the story and… who knows. Maybe it's gonna be Morgan/Garcia in the end. :) I know, this might be a little AU or OOC – or both – but, well, I wanted them to have a talk about Kevin and that's what they came up with. Honestly, I'm not the one to blame for that fight!_

"You and Kevin?" he burst out when he stormed into her office.

Startled Penelope turned around in her chair and looked at him. Then she asked in a low voice: "JJ told you?"

"No… well, yes" he mumbled, "but only 'cause Kevin wanted to talk to Rossi and we were wondering why and then…"

"I can't believe he did this." she sighed.

"I… I didn't even know you were dating." he said trying to stay calm.

"We weren't" she sighed, "not really. It was… I… It just happened."

"Just… happened." he repeated and then sighed. Why had she done that? After everything they'd had?

"What?" Penelope crossed her arms in front of her chest and frowned at him. "You are allowed to lay whoever crosses your way and I'm not? Or do you just begrudge me to find someone who's interested in me?"

"I… I just thought that after everything we had…"

"Everything we had?" she yelled at him. "We didn't have ANYTHING!"

Derek was startled for a moment. What did she mean they didn't have anything? Had the mutual 'I love you' not meant anything to her? She'd looked so touched when she'd said it back that he'd been sure she had actually meant it.

"Baby girl…" he finally tried.

"Don't baby girl me!" Penelope harshly interrupted him.

"What?" he asked a little puzzled.

She took a deep breath and finally looked at him when she said in a low voice: "I'm not your toy, Derek!"

All he could do in return was frown at her. "Penelope, I never thought of you as…"

"Yet you're behaving like a little kid with one of his toys." she snorted. "As long as no one wants me, you ignore me. But as soon as someone's paying me the least bit of attention you get jealous and suddenly are all attentive and pretend that I am more to you than just a friend. But you can't just put me into the next corner and forget about me and never make any move until some other man crosses my way and you get jealous again."

"I… I just wanted to give you time." he tried to defend himself.

"Giving me time my ass!" Penelope hissed.

He was starting to get impatient. No, actually he was about to get really pissed! So he crossed his arms in front of his chest and grumbled: "I'm sorry, I didn't know you would be such an easy lay."

"Kevin is serious about us." she yelled at him. "I wasn't just an easy lay for him as women usually are for you. He called me his girlfriend and he said he would never forget about last night. When was the last time you said that to any woman?"

"Oh, so that's what you think about me?" he yelled back at her. "That I just want to lay you."

"Me? Never!" she snorted. "Except you wanted to know what it's like to lay an oversized woman. This is all a big game for you, isn't it? But I'm sorry, I won't join in any longer."

"Oh, so you wanted to give me a ride and all you could think of was fucking the next best guy that crossed your way?!" the words had left his mouth before he could do anything to hold them back.

And then it happened. Penelope didn't even notice that she made this movement and Derek obviously didn't see it coming. But the next second her hand slapped his face the sound of that echoing in her office.

Penelope stared at him in shock.

And Derek stared back at her.

"Baby girl, I'm sorry, I…"

"Go." she said, her voice much too calm for a situation loaded with so much emotion.

_Shit!_ "Please, let me explain! I…" he started again.

"Go!" she repeated, obviously trying not to yell at him again. "Before you can say anything more you might regret afterwards." She pushed him out of her office and slammed the door in his face. Then she leaned against it and panted with anger. How could he do this to her? Now that she'd finally managed to get over him and the pathetic little crush she had on him?

She sat back down in her chair and decided to concentrate on her work. But she couldn't stop the tears from running down her cheeks and dropping from her chin onto the red blouse she was wearing.

And that was how Kevin found her a few minutes after that.

"Penelope?" he carefully asked as he took a step closer.

"Hey." she sniffled and wiped the tears from her face.

"What's wrong?" he wanted to know, concern and confusion audible in his voice.

"Nothing." she assured and turned away from him.

"Everything is fine." he smiled in an attempt to comfort her. "I talked to Rossi. I know you didn't want me to do that but… I simply had to. And he said it was okay if our relationship doesn't affect our work."

"Good." she nodded.

"Good?" he gave her a puzzled look. "So… you're not mad at me or something?"

"No." she assured shaking her head to emphasize this word. And then she turned her head to smile at him. But when she remembered that he'd been the exact reason why she'd have a terrible fight with her best friend – and the man she simply couldn't stop loving no matter how hard she tried – new tears welled up in her eyes.

So Penelope quickly stood up and pulled Kevin into a tight embrace. At least she still had someone who could comfort her.

Not knowing what else to do Kevin returned the embrace. If only she would trust him enough to tell him what had happened so he could do something to make it better. But maybe he should just be glad that she wasn't mad at him for talking to Rossi and that he now was allowed to hold her even in her office. "I love you." he whispered.

"I know." was all Penelope could sob in return. She closed her eyes and cherished the feeling of warmth this embrace sent through her body. Of course, it wasn't the same but at least it was real.

After all, it had just been a stupid little fight between friends. No big deal. She would forget about it and keep flirting and bantering with Derek as if nothing ever happened – even though she knew it would never be the same again.


	3. How to break somebody's heart

Title: Secrets

**Title: **How to break somebody's heart

**Fandom:** Criminal Minds

**Pairing:** Morgan/Garcia

**Prompt for 10 hurt/comfort:** #6 Lonely

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** Neither the show nor the characters belong to me, they belong to CBS. Nonetheless, I love to borrow them from time to time.

**Summary:** Set after 'Damaged'. Part 3 of the 'Love hurts' series. Sometimes there's no way to say the truth without breaking someone's heart.

**warnings:** well, spoilers for season 3

"Hello, my beauty." Kevin smiled when he entered her office. He'd learned pretty early in their relationship that he shouldn't creep up on her to surprise her.

"Hi." Penelope turned in her chair and gave him a warm smile. "What can I do for you?"

"Do I need a reason to come up here and check on my girlfriend?" he smirked a little.

"No." her smile widened and she blushed slightly – as she did every time he called her his girlfriend. Even after about five months she wasn't entirely used to all this.

"You know, I… wanted to talk to you." Kevin stuttered obviously nervous and pulled the second chair closer so that he could sit down next to her.

Penelope raised both her eyebrows at him: "Oh?"

"Yeah, well… you know, about… something important… very important." he explained and started to fumble with his tie.

"Okay." she slowly said and eyed him up. "Well then, go ahead!"

"Well, we've been dating for quite a while now." he mumbled and cleared his throat.

Penelope couldn't help but smirk at that: "If you want to call it that."

His head shot up and he gave her a quizzical look, then a wry smile and nodded. "Yeah… um… you know, you're really important to me."

Those words touched her more than she'd thought possible and she reached out to squeeze his hand. "You're important to me too."

He smiled and took a deep breath. "I was hoping that you thought that way." he cleared his throat once again. "I mean, I never met a woman like you before. You're amazing, unique and I could spend the rest of my life sitting here and watching you multitask. You're so beautiful when you do that."

A single tear ran down her cheek. Only few people had ever called her beautiful – and even fewer people had actually meant it.

"So… well, I thought that… I don't know how serious you are about us but… I'm very serious about this relationship. I can see spending the rest of my life with you and I… I really like that thought."

Penelope drew in a deep breath. He wasn't going to propose, right? Right? It's only been five months and…

Taking another deep breath Kevin reached into his pocket, pulled out the small purple box and opened it. "So I wanted to ask you to marry me."

"Kevin!" she gasped and stared at the ring in shock.

"Penelope, will you marry me?" he reformulated the sentence into a question.

"I… I…" she stuttered, her voice barely above a whisper. "Actually, I don't know what to say."

"What about yes?" Kevin asked carefully.

Penelope raised her eyes from the ring to look at him and they filled with tears when she saw the hope on his face. But she had to tell him the truth. "Kevin, I can't…"

"It's okay" he quickly assured, "I mean, I didn't want you to feel rushed. I just thought that… well, since everything's going so well between us I thought that we could take the next step. We don't have to marry anytime soon, we can wait as long as you want, really. I just thought it would be nice to… well, kinda show that we're at least thinking about it."

She bit her lower lip, tears running down her cheeks, and slowly shook her head. And then she saw in his eyes the exact moment he understood what she'd wanted to say – and the next second she saw his heart breaking.

"Oh" Kevin said huskily and put the ring back into his pocket, "I understand."

"I'm so sorry." Penelope whispered and reached out to squeeze his shoulder in a desperate attempt to comfort him and make it a bit better.

But he pulled away. "Well, then I guess we… shouldn't see each other any longer." He quickly stood up and hurried towards the door.

"Kevin, wait!" Penelope jumped up from her seat and held him back. "I didn't mean… It doesn't have to be over."

"Of course, it does." he sighed and turned to look back at her. "You don't want me, not entirely. You're not as serious about our relationship as I am. You could let me into your bed, into your life but never into your heart."

He waited for her to object even though he knew she wouldn't. After all, it was the truth. "You can't marry me if your heart belongs to someone else no matter how important I am to you. I understand that."

"Kevin… I don't…" she once again tried to hold him back.

Slowly he turned to her and gave her a sad smile. "It's because of him. Don't tell me it isn't!"

This time Penelope didn't answer. It wasn't necessary, he knew the truth.

"I knew it." he added. "You can't stop loving him – not even for me. I just hope you made the right choice, that he was worth it and that he will appreciate it."

That being said he was gone and suddenly Penelope felt incredibly lonely. She'd really liked Kevin, maybe even loved him. Their relationship had been good and real and mutual. But she'd given all that up. And all she could do was hope she made the right decision.

Penelope sank back down on her chair and stared at the empty one next to her for a while and it made her feel even more lonely. But she'd needed to tell him the truth, anything else would have been unfair. She took her glasses off, braced her elbows on the table, covered her face with both hands and started to cry. She was lonely again, maybe for the rest of her life.

When her cell phone rang about an hour later she was still slightly sobbing. She took a moment to calm down and collect herself, wiped away her tears and answered: "Garcia."

A moment of silence. Then his voice, filled with concern: "Baby girl?"

"Morgan" she desperately tried to sound as normal as possible and keep the tears out of her voice, "what can I do for you?"

Another moment of silence before he carefully asked: "Are you crying?"

"I'm fine." she quickly assured. "So, why did you call me? Do you need me to do any background checks or what?"

A little unwillingly he gave her two names and it only took her two seconds to find the addresses belonging to them. "Was that all?" she wanted to know.

"It was so far." Derek affirmed.

"Talk to you later!" she was about to press the button to end the call.

"Wait, baby cakes!" he held her back. "Tell me what happened!"

"Derek, this is none of your business, okay." she sighed and rubbed her burning eyes. "Just leave it alone."

"I can't and you know that." he softly said. "Was it Lynch? Did he hurt you?"

"No, Derek, please, leave me alone!" she repeated. "I don't want to talk about all that, not now and not to you."

"Please, Penelope, sweetness, let me…" but all he heard in return was the click announcing that she'd hung up.

Derek quickly grabbed the keys to the SUV and hurried over to Rossi. "I need to go to Quantico." he explained. "It's really important, I'll be back as soon as possible."

"Agent Morgan!" Rossi held the man back who immediately wanted to rush out of the door. "We're on a case. You can't just leave and promise to be back as soon as possible."

"But…" he wanted to object.

"I don't have a problem with the two of you being an item or you trying to get there" the elder man added, "as long as it doesn't affect your work."

"It won't, I promise." Derek quickly assured. When Rossi raised an eyebrow in return Derek remembered what he was about to do and added: "Not after today, never again. It's just… if I don't go back now…"

"I know." he smiled. "Yet you can't. If you go now you'll go next time too."

"I won't, I…"

"Promise?" Rossi raised another eyebrow. "I guess, you better hurry to solve this case."

"Thanks." Derek grumbled, threw the keys back on the table and stomped back into the chief's office that was now serving them as a conference room.

Rossi heard him snap at Reid, shook his head and turned back to the file he was reading. He could only hope everything turned out well. Morgan simply was way too crabby since he found out about Garcia and Kevin Lynch.


	4. One more try

**Title: **One more try

**Fandom:** Criminal Minds

**Pairing:** Morgan/Garcia

**Prompt for 10 hurt/comfort:** #7 Jealousy

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** Neither the show nor the characters belong to me, they belong to CBS. Nonetheless, I love to borrow them from time to time.

**Summary:** Set after 'Damaged'. Part four of the 'Love hurts' series. This time Derek plans to take his chance.

**warnings:** well, spoilers for season 3

"Baby girl!" Derek burst into her office only a few minutes after the plane had landed. He had most definitely broken almost every traffic regulation he could think of on his way from the airport to the FBI headquarters.

Penelope turned around in her chair and gave him an overdone smile. But Derek could see that it was fake. "Hey, gorgeous! Do you need my help with the paper work?"

"N… No, actually I just wanted to make sure that you're alright. So… um… are you?" he softly asked, walked over and knelt down in front of her. Of course, he could have sat down on the empty chair but he figured she'd maybe rather listen to him if his position was a little more submissive.

"I'm fine." she snorted and tried to turn away from him. Why couldn't he simply leave her alone? Was it not enough that her relationship was over because of him?

"Please, Penelope" Derek begged and turned her chair around so that she was facing him again, "tell me what happened!"

"He dumped me." she said in a low voice. "Or maybe I dumped him, I'm not sure about that. Anyway, I hope you're happy now."

"What… Sweetness, why should that make me happy?" he frowned at her.

"Wasn't that what you wanted?" Penelope shrugged and looked down.

Okay, good. He couldn't deny that he never liked Lynch – let alone the idea of them being together. Him holding his baby girl at night, kissing her, touching her… He clenched his fists and then shook the thought off as well as he could. This wasn't the time for his jealousy.

Then Derek reached out and cupped her cheek with his hand gently caressing her skin with his thumb. "I never wanted to see you unhappy." he softly assured.

This statement just brought new tears to her eyes and she looked down again. Even after three days she couldn't stop crying. She never wanted to break his heart.

"Baby, what did he do?" he softly asked. "You know, I'll hunt him down and kill him if he hurt you."

"He's only two floors down." she sniffled. "And he didn't do anything. It was all my fault."

"Why don't you just tell me what happened?" his voice was so low that it was almost a whisper.

Penelope sighed, then she sniffled again. "Kevin proposed." was all she said.

"Oh?" Fortunately he was at least able to keep the rising jealousy out of his voice. It took him a moment to put the pieces together. When he'd finally figured out what had happened afterwards it drew another "Oh." from his lips. "You… declined." he concluded.

She nodded. "I… I simply couldn't marry him. I never thought he would propose at all."

"But… I thought you were happy." he carefully said.

"I thought so too." Penelope started to sob again. "And I know I… Maybe I should have said yes. But marrying him would have meant betraying him – and myself as well, I guess."

Derek just frowned, sighed and gave her a concerned look. He had absolutely no clue what she was talking about.

"He said it himself." she added. "I can't marry him when my heart belongs to someone else." Penelope bit her lower lip, she couldn't believe she just said that. Slowly she raised her head and locked eyes with him.

Derek thought he couldn't believe his ears. Had she just told him that she loved him, that she was IN love with him? He could clearly read in her eyes that her words had applied to him. Smiling he reached out and cupped her cheek with his hand again. "And I thought you didn't want me." he whispered.

"For the big bad profiler that you are you can be really stupid." she replied voicelessly. "I always wanted you, only you, since the day we met."

Now grinning like mad Derek leaned forward in an attempt to kiss her.

"Don't!" she whispered and turned away from him.

"But… I thought you wanted this too." he said in complete confusion.

"Of course, I do." Penelope closed her eyes in a desperate attempt to hold back the new tears that wanted to spring to her eyes. "But you don't. You know that, I know it… I'm simply… not at all your type."

"Baby girl, look at me!" he softly commanded and waited for her to lock eyes with him again. Caressing her cheek with one finger he answered: "Don't think I just want you because I'm jealous of Kevin. I was jealous of him because I want you. I know, I was a fool not to make a move on you. But to be honest I was scared."

Now it was Penelope who gave him a quizzical look.

Derek smiled at her: "I was scared because I never felt this way before. And I was scared that I might hurt you 'cause that's the last thing I want to do."

All she could do was nod. This couldn't be true. It simply couldn't.

"Trust me" Derek said in a low voice, "I don't want to hurt you."

"Just don't break my heart." she whispered.

"I promise." Derek nodded and leaned closer again. When he felt her whole body stiffen he pulled back and gave her another concerned look. After all it had only been three days since they'd broken up. "Baby, if I'm going too fast…"

"No" she quickly interrupted him, "no. It's just… I've been waiting for this moment for so long and… I can't believe this is really happening."

"Then let me show you that it's real." he smiled and crossed the short distance between them to gently let his lips touch hers.

This kiss was so much different from every kiss she'd ever gotten. It was soft and gentle and just perfect. Slowly she raised her hand to let her fingers follow the line of his jaw while she tilted her head and parted her lips to deepen the kiss.

Derek's heart skipped a beat when she willingly kissed him back. Her lips were so soft and she tasted of cherry – probably from her lipstick – and a slight touch of coffee. She was so sweet, so soft… and her touch sent thrills down his spine he'd never felt before. He couldn't think of a single kiss that had ever felt this perfect.

"Wow!" Penelope gasped when they finally had to break the kiss for air and leaned her forehead against his.

"Yeah, wow!" Derek smiled. His hand slid to her neck and started to knead it gently. He shivered when she moaned in response to his touch. "Do you think… we can do that again?"

"I don't think we should." she whispered. "I mean, fraternizing in my office…"

"I talked to Rossi." he replied. "He said he was okay if we… fraternize."

She pulled back a little to look at him: "You were pretty confident, right?"

"No, actually… he said that when I told him I wanted to go back to Quantico." he smiled at her. "I didn't plan on anything I just… wanted to be here and make you stop crying."

"Oh." she smiled back and caressed his cheek. "You wanted to come here even though you were on a case?"

"Oh, doll face, do you really think I care about anything when I know that you're sitting here upset and all in tears?" he smiled. "I can't stand to see – or even hear – you cry."

She grinned and replied playfully: "Then I guess you're allowed to kiss me again."

He didn't need to be told twice. His hand still on her neck he raised to his knees and pulled her closer. The kiss was a little more passionate this time – and it was getting really hot after a few seconds. She was the only woman in the entire universe who could kiss him like that – in a way that made the whole world around him stop revolving!

"You know, I thought about all this and you're right. I understand that you can't marry me but we can still…" Kevin froze in the middle of the sentence when he saw the scene in front of him. He'd expected pretty much anything when he'd burst into her office but not what he had to face now. Derek Morgan was kneeling in front of Penelope, practically between her legs. And apparently their clothes were the only thing that kept the two of them from actually having sex.

They jumped apart and Penelope stared at him in shock. "Kevin!" she gasped.

"I'm… sorry." he muttered and quickly turned to leave. "I shouldn't have come here."

"Kevin, please, wait!" she wanted to jump up but Derek held her back.

"Let me talk to him!" he softly commanded.

"No, I have to talk to him." she objected, new tears springing to her eyes. "I broke his heart –twice now. I… I'm not the kind of girl who breaks hearts and I didn't want to… I have to… do something."

"Please, sweetness, trust me!" he insisted.

A little unwillingly she nodded and Derek hurried out of the office. She followed him but stopped in the doorway and watched as he caught up with Kevin at the door to the stairway.

"Kevin, hey… um…" Derek wasn't entirely sure what to say so he said the first thing that came to his mind. "I'm sorry."

"No, you're not." he snorted. "Oh, well, maybe that I interrupted you."

"Seriously, I… " Derek stuttered. "I didn't want to step into your relationship – which doesn't mean I'm not glad that… well… Anyway, I… just wanted to say thank you."

This however startled Kevin and he blinked at the taller man in front of him.

"I know that you took good care of Penelope." he took a deep breath to swallow the jealousy that was rising in his chest. "And I know that you were good for her… to her."

He just nodded not sure what to say in return. He'd loved to just punch the man in front of him – which wasn't a wise idea since he was physically inferior.

"You… made her very happy, I know that." Derek added. "And I know that I'm just lucky that in the end she decided on me."

"You better treat her right." Kevin finally said. "She only deserves the best."

"I know." Derek smiled.

Kevin took a deep breath and eyed his opponent up. "I'm serious. Don't break her heart 'cause she wouldn't survive that. She loves you more than anything else in the world."

Derek raised both his eyebrows at him.

"Did you honestly think I never noticed?" he laughed dryly. "But Penelope was sure you'd never share these feelings so… I thought I could make her forget about you – which was pretty senseless with you around the whole day long."

"Yeah, I know… I was giving you a hard time." Derek mumbled. "It took me too long to make a move and if you… anyway…" He put out his hand for Kevin.

Kevin hesitated for a moment, but finally shook it. "Just make her happy!" he said and then he left as fast as he could.

"I'll do my very best." he nodded at the other man's back. Derek quickly hurried back to her office and pulled her into a tight embrace.

Penelope sighed with relief. She still felt sorry for Kevin and somewhat guilty. But she also felt happy that Derek had finally made a move on her. "If you break my heart" she whispered as he started to nibble on her neck, "I'm gonna delete your existence."

"Uh huh." he smiled against her skin.

Pulling back a little to look at him she frowned: "I can do that."

"I know." he nodded and his smile widened. "But I'm not afraid of that 'cause I'm absolutely not planning on breaking your heart, ever."

But her face remained serious. "Can I ask you something?"

Now it was Derek's turn to frown. "What's wrong?"

"That night… when you stayed with me and… helped me change my clothes…" she looked down and mumbled: "Why didn't you look at me?"

He was startled for a moment. That had been the problem? Boy, women were really hard to understand!

"I didn't want you to feel embarrassed." he replied. "And… I didn't want to rip your stitches."

Her head shot up and she stared at him.

Smiling he let his finger run along her collarbone. "I wasn't entirely sure that I would be able to keep myself from… taking advantage of you. Seeing your bare back had almost been too much for me to take. Your skin looked so soft and tempting…"

"Oh." she whispered and blushed a little. She suddenly felt terribly stupid.

But Derek just grinned and leaned down to breath into her ear: "Do you want me to show you what would have happened if I'd looked at you."

She shivered with pleasure and her eyes fluttered shut. "Y… Yes…" she gasped.

"Good" he smiled and leaned in to nibble at her neck again, "and I will eventually. But at first I want to take you out… dinner… dancing… the whole program."

"You know, you don't need to… I mean, we could skip that and… you could just come over to my place tonight." she offered. She knew that she had to offer something to make him stay with her. It had always been this way – even with Kevin.

"Why rush?" he whispered. "We have a whole lifetime ahead of us."

Or maybe she was wrong about that and he was different. Maybe he would stay anyhow.

**_The end_**


End file.
